Friday, August 8, 2008

Is Science a Blessing or a Curse

The gifts of science are indisputable and countless. There can be no denying the fact that science has made so much progress that life of a man, society, nation and the world has advanced tremendously. The knowledge gained learn through science and scientific technology speaks volumes about man’s ingenuity and skill. If all this was not achieved by science it would be no wonder that, even today, man might have been the animal as he was in the ages past – i.e. just another animal. It is science that has given us all the amenities of modern living that we can proudly boast of end enjoy.The drudgery of household work has been reduced to an almost nil by the numerous gifts of science. You have much task to do, and there is a machine to do it for you. In its social aspect, no matter where we want to go, whomsoever we want to meet, the scientist has helped us and we have umpteen scientific modes of traveling to and fro. We want entertainment, the radio and then the television are at our doorstep to do the job, in our drawing rooms or in the bedrooms. If we want to gain knowledge we have other media – books. This is also the result of mechanization of solving problems. When we want to know more about other countries of the world, we have the internet to help us out. So, in a nutshell, we can say that, the twins of science and mechanism have brought us out of the darkness of the woods. Let us understand that, is the subject, and mechanization is the outcome. We can say the two are like two bodies and one soul.Our lifestyle is now undoubtedly much above and the animal that of man ages back. This journey has taken man centres but, it has been worth it. Now, having studied the gifts of Science to mankind, it will do us some good if we do some introspection and try also to study how, and to what extent we are now misusing our scientific knowledge. As far as science is helping man to make life better it is very good but, does man stop there? He continues his so-called study and research which further leads him on to the destructive capability of science. We are in for making bombs, using nuclear energy for purposes of destruction. Today man has the most destructive weapons ever produced. One bomb can annihilate civilization. In the event of a third world war, there is no doubt that man will perish. It is at this aspect of scientific growth we must put a stop whose gain will it be, if the world is destroyed? I am sure it will benefit none. Yes, none at all. We must understand that we should not pursue the track that leads to annihilation. All the gifts of science must be enjoyed to the full and that can happen only if man survives to taste the fruits of mechanization. Production of destrictive weapons the greatest curse of science to men.On the home front also it is felt that, too much mechanization, accounts for our inability to work of our own self. We get so used to machines that our bodies get absolutely frozen and become unfit to do any work. Moving about all the time in cars makes our physique. This creeps several diseases. We become basically very lazy.On the national front, mechanization has led to industrialization which, in turn has given birth to extensive unemployment and capitalism. Machines being devices to save labour, have mercilessly thrown thousand out of employment, and capitalism has led to class struggle, the big capitalists exploiting the poor labourers.At the lowest and smallest level of life, man has lost his own humaneness as though he himself has become a machine. He has got so enmeshed in the machines that the has lost all contact with his own species who make for his live company. This live company has been sacrificed for the mechanical idiot box. As son as man loses touch with his kin, he is most likely to become a machine whose company he keeps all the while. The human touch which was so special about a family and the society is getting lost as every individual has become more or less a machine.Besides these mundane and down-to-earth results of scientific growth, there is one very important aspect which has got lost. Science leaves no place to accommodate God or religion. For the scientific and mechanical mind can understand only what he sees or, something that can be explained with some amount of reasoning. God and religion are two things that can have no mathematical formulae to explain. Today’s man cannot understand this so called foolish premise of the existence of any God.This disbelief in God is leading to further degeneration of the family and the society, the two essential composites of a healthy nation. There does not in today’s context seem to be any force that can convince man of the necessity of being God fearing and thus being good. Man understand only what he can see and these days his vision is too blurred to see the place of God in the scheme of things. This irreligious attitude of man is further bringing down to the lowest ebb, the sensitivity of our very beings.Thus we see that the blessings of science though innumerable, have a matching number of abuses. The abuses are so great that they even pose the danger of complete annihilation of the human race, both physically and mentally and of course spiritually. Looking at the sum total of the scenario the abuses outnumber the blessings. This is because man is basically destructive by nature and getting too much of scientific know-how will only confirm his doom.